How to Remove a Bot Fly From Under the Skin

Bot flies lay their eggs on mosquitoes. If a mosquitoe bites you, the eggs can hatch under your skin. The hole left by the bite lets the developing bot fly breathe. Here are some tips for removing it.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Apply superglue to the bite. This closes off the air hole so that the bot fly maggots cannot easily breathe. When they come up for air they stick to the super glue. Pull back the glue after it dries, and you will have maggots sticking to it.

2. Cover the hole with a small cotton ball soaked in heavy camphor oil. Tape it down and wait 8 hours. When you pull up the tape, a bot fly maggot comes out.

3. Soak in a tub of hot water and Epsom salt for 45 minutes. This will slowly kill the maggots who come to the surface to breathe.

4. Rub pine tar on the bites and bandage the skin. Remove it in 2 days and the bot fly maggots should come out on the bandage.

5. Slather on petroleum jelly. When the maggot sticks his head out to breathe, let it die, and then pull it out in one swift movement.

6. Leave the bot fly maggot alone. It will complete its cycle of life and fall out by itself.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not try to pull the maggot out alive. The maggots have hooks that hold them in place. You can split it in half, causing an infection.